Friday, July 15, 2005

kevin

I get into these insane arguments with Kevin (he's a nice enough guy) and he uses one of my least favorite debating techniques, I'll try to describe it....

Instead of making an assertion of his beliefs and backing it with facts---he miscommunicates and misconstrues the other persons beliefs and then proceeds to attack them...so I find myself constantly backing away from statements that I haven't made.

It's similar to the "straw-man" fallacy where the debater sets up a an indefensible position that hasn't even been asserted, and then attacks it as beyond the pale, attributing it to the opposing person. The opposing person then is forced to explain away something that they haven't even espoused....

Regardless, you can always tell you have won a debate when someone refuses to answer simple questions. Ask simple, easy to answer questions that force the opposition to make your point for you. They will get flustered, try to change the subject, make wild accusations, etc.... I am not the best debater, (master-debater maybe) but I have found that it is the most satisfying way to make your point.

1 Comments:

Anonymous said...

The real fun is when you either hold no actual position on the subject, or maybe agree on the subject, but change your stated position just to be contrary. It really tests your ability to discuss issues, especially if you understand where the multiple sides are coming from, and can regurgitate information from memory to trap the other person into misspeaking.